academy awards

This week, the documentary world mourns the passing of a beloved editor, we look forward to the Oscars and look back at Sundance, and we take a peek at Patti Smith’s new memoir. Documentary editor Karen Schmeer was killed in a hit-and-run accident in New York City last week. Filmmaker Errol Morris, who worked with

Nominations for the 2010 Academy Awards were announced this morning in Los Angeles, and we were thrilled to hear that two upcoming POV films, Food, Inc. and The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, were nominated for Best Documentary Feature. About Food, Inc.: How much do we know about the

Over on the Thompson on Hollywood blog today, there is a three-part video interview with filmmaker Robert Kenner about his goals for Food, Inc., the difficulties he encountered in making the film, and his hope that the film will “make all of us think about it because that’s what’s going to change the system.” Check

We’re excited to announce that the POV/PBS broadcast of the Academy Award shortlisted film, Food, Inc., has been set for Wednesday, April 21 at 9 PM on most PBS stations. You can check listings on your local PBS station closer to the date, but if you don’t want to miss this broadcast be sure to

So it turns out, to the surprise of very few people, that Man on Wire IS the doc of the year. As our own Tom Roston predicted last week, Man on Wire won the best documentary award at last night’s Oscars. (It also won Best Doc at the Independent Spirit Awards on Saturday.) The win

Academy Award nominations were announced this morning, and some of the most critically acclaimed documentaries of the year took their rightful place on the list of nominees: The Betrayal (Nerakhoon) by Ellen Kuras and Thavisouk Phrasavath (POV 2009) Encounters at the End of the World by Werner Herzog The Garden by Scott Hamilton Kennedy Man

For film critics, the end of the year means casting an eye over the last twelve months of offerings and whittling down their “Best of” lists. Award season has begun, and as various regional critics associations (Houston! Chicago! Toronto! etc.) weigh in with their pronouncements, everyone begins the countdown to the Academy Awards, which take

Congratulations to all the filmmakers on the 15-film shortlist for the Oscar for Best Documentary! Upcoming POV film The Betrayal (Nerakhoon), by Ellen Kuras, which will air on PBS in 2009, was among the films included. In January 2008, the POV Blog followed Ellen as she spent a day at the Sundance Film Festival, where

As we blogged a couple weeks ago in our Arthouse Confidential post about independent theaters, there’s a lot of cool stuff going on at local arthouse cinemas around the country. If you’re lucky enough to live near one, you can take advantage of all sorts of great opportunities to see films that may be otherwise

The documentary winners of the 80th Annual Academy Awards were announced on Sunday night. Best Documentary Feature Taxi to the Dark Side Alex Gibney and Eva Orner Best Documentary Short Subject Freeheld Cynthia Wade and Vanessa Roth Reactions from the blogosphere are slowly trickling in. First, a shout-out to our own Tom Roston, who was